Wrestling: Yorkville takes home Southwest Prairie Conference title

AURORA – West Aurora won four of its five championship matches, but Yorkville was too strong overall, winning Saturday’s Southwest Prairie Conference meet with 505.5 points to West Aurora’s 442.

Plainfield North was third with 427.5 points while Oswego had 375 and Minooka finished with 343.5 to round out the top five teams among the 12-team field.

Senior Aaron Nelson got the Blackhawks rolling, defeating Yorkville freshman Dominic Recchia, 7-1, at 120 pounds.

“I got into a lot of scrambling situations in my third match and the championship match,” Nelson said. “I was in some pretty awkward positions, but managed to get out of them.”

Blackhawks’ freshman Dominic Serios doubled up Minooka’s Elijah Munoz, 8-4, at 138 while his sophomore teammate Noah Quintana blanked Plainfield North senior Brody Wyller, 7-0.

Francisco Solis, who was out with an injury for over a month, beat fellow junior Anthony Gulino from Plainfield North, 8-2, at 170 to capture West Aurora’s fourth individual title.

“I was injured from Thanksgiving until the first week of January,” Solis said. “I wasn’t nervous. I didn’t know what the kid could do so I tried to get my attacks and once I did you just go. I felt confident. I felt I could’ve scored more points and wrestled better but I still came out on top.”

Yorkville advanced wrestlers to the semifinals in 12 weight classes and was represented in half of the overall title matches, winning three of them.

Sophomore Ben Alvarez knocked off Joliet West senior Bryan McCoy at 220 pounds, 7-2, sophomore Jack Ferguson got past Plainfield South sophomore Rudy Silva, 8-2, at 113 while freshman Luke Zook had a sudden victory thriller over West Aurora senior Moses Quintana for the team’s second conference title.

“It feels good because I lost to him earlier in the year (Dec. 30),” Zook said. “It helps to know the style he wrestles and it’s kind of how I won. For each match I go in with the same mindset of trying to win no matter if I beat him earlier in the year or if it’s the first time (wrestling him).”

Dominic Recchia (120), Dom Coronado (126), Ryder Janeczko (126) and Hunter Janeczko (195) all advanced to the finals for the Foxes.

“We’re going to keep on training and getting better every day and maybe win a state title, I don’t know,” Zook said, “Our team is really good and we have a lot of potential. We have a lot of young people on our team. I feel like we’re going to be good these next four years.”

Oswego’s top finisher was A.J. Johnson’s second place effort at 160,  but the Panthers proved particularly strong in bouncing back from losses in the semifinals as Brayden Swanson (113), Ryan Goddard (120), Logan Guerrero (126), Joseph Griffin (152) and Cruz Ibarra (182) won third-place matches.

In times of uncertainty, Plainfield South senior John Pacewic definitely knows what he wants and where he’s going, which includes the weight he’s at now.

“I started (the season) at 220 and just got down to 195,” he said. “I haven’t gotten too much competition at 195 until now. I wrestled good but I still have about a month until state.”

The goal of a state title is his focus. It will also signal the end of his wrestling days.

“If state comes tomorrow, I can do it tomorrow, but I’ve got work to do,” he said. “I’m leaving for the Marines this summer so this is it. I want to get that state championship.”

While Gulino and Wyller made it to the finals for PlainfieldNorth, the Tigers also earned three titles from their seniors at 126, 160 and 285 respectively as Jacob Macatangay, who is undefeated in 38 bouts, Jared Gumila and Kaden McCombs all won.

McCombs put an end to a long day of wrestling in Aurora,holding off Joliet West sophomore Wyatt Schmitt, 3-0.

Schmitt’s teammate, freshman Carson Weber, won at 106. Weber pinned Romeoville sophomore Brian Farley.

Minooka sophomore Cale Stonitsch beat Yorkville’s RyderJaneczko 7-5, for the 132 title.

“It was nice,” Stonitsch said. “Everybody wrestled pretty good. I hadn’t wrestled him before. I just wrestled the same way.”

Plainfield Central junior Max Bowen pinned Joliet West junior Jovon Johnson at 182. It was the lone title for the Wildcats who were among a deep field as seven teams won at least one weight class.